Note:this starts out as a rubbish about fabric-care…
It turns out that just because something is 100% cotton does not mean you simply wash it in warm water, or add fabric softener during the rinse cycle. Based on some horrible results, I should have realized this maybe 8 years ago, but that’s another story. Anyway, read the fabric-care labels on your clothes. Some cotton-based items are damaged by fabric softeners, like those stain/wrinkle resistant pants. I spill both food and drink often, some might say daily, so this is important to me.
As for the water temperature, you still need hot water for your whites; if you care for the environment, use warm water – Tide has some new detergents that work well in cooler water temps. However, your colored cottons may vary. Some need cold water and low drying only, or they’ll shrink! Well, the real problem is not the fabric, it’s the lack of reading the fabric-care labels. If I actually read them, I wouldn’t lose a good shirt on an average of every 2 months. The same goes for everything we do in life. Although you wont find care labels on your family, job or home. There’s existing wisdom on these subjects. You may have to search for it; or maybe just open your eyes and ears.
Case in point: The red brick walkway in front of my home was added in the 70’s, 2 owners ago. It’s an odd pattern that winds from the front porch to about 8 feet from the street. So, it doesn’t go directly to the driveway, nor does it actually go to the street. I never understood why. Some of the bricks started to fall into the ground. I knew this could be a bigger problem than just looks: mail-person trips on one of those, and I’m screwed. I called around for estimates, and selected a bid that wasn’t the cheapest, but a 3rd-generation concrete guy in the area.
You may be thinking: “have him remove the old walkway, and build a new one going directly to the driveway.” I assumed it would cost (much) more, so I decided against it. My neighbor, we’ll call him Dale (since that’s his name), mentioned that the walkway was considered odd when it was initially put in. It had not real goal, other than to be eccentric and draw attention. Here comes some of that wisdom… After I gave him some background, he schooled me on some things. The bricks were actually worth something (esp. to a brick/concrete guy), and that I should ask for another estimate for a shorter walkway. He was right: removing the old walkway, back-filling that with sod they took from another job, and adding a new concrete walkway, actually cost me much less. As I said, you may have been thinking that, but I wasn’t. You may also be the kind of person who already knew to read the fabric-care labels. If you are, I kinda hate you.